• Matthew J Harris, Darica Au, Katy Judd, Joanna R Atkinson, Maureen Bergson, and Catherine J Mummery.
• Dementia Research Centre, National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, London, UK mjharris@doctors.org.uk.
• Clin Med (Lond). 2021 Jul 1; 21 (4): e375e379e375-e379.

AbstractThere are significant health inequalities between Deaf and hearing people, including barriers to accessing care and communication difficulties in consultations. Such problems have particularly affected Deaf people with acquired cognitive deficits, leading to late and missed diagnoses. We therefore established a specialist cognitive clinic for the Deaf community in 2011 at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, which to our knowledge is the first of its kind in the world. In this study, we retrospectively analysed electronic patient records to evaluate the service and its impact since inception. We found that Deaf patients who use British sign language had difficulty obtaining an accurate diagnosis before attending our specialist clinic, highlighting the importance of tailored services for Deaf people. Our results show that the clinic improved communication for patients and accessibility to specialist investigations, ensuring diagnostic accuracy and overall reducing health inequality for this population.© Royal College of Physicians 2021. All rights reserved.

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